EVENTS BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND PUNIC WARS. B.C. 240-210.
Twenty-three years elapsed between the First and Second Punic Wars. The
power of Carthage, though crippled, was not destroyed; and Hamilcar
returned home, burning with hatred against Rome, and determined to renew
the war upon a favorable opportunity. But a new and terrible danger
threatened Carthage upon her own soil. The mercenary troops, who had
been transported from Sicily to Africa at the conclusion of the war,
being unable to obtain their arrears of pay, rose in open mutiny. Their
leaders were Spendius, a runaway Campanian slave, and Matho, a Libyan.
They were quickly joined by the native Libyans, and brought Carthage
almost to the brink of destruction. They laid waste the whole country
with fire and sword, made themselves masters of all the towns except the
capital, and committed the most frightful atrocities. Carthage owed her
safety to the genius and abilities of Hamilcar. The struggle was fierce
and sanguinary, but was at length brought to a successful issue, after
it had lasted more than three years, by the destruction of all the
mercenaries. It was called the War without Peace, or the Inexpiable War
(B.C. 238).
The Romans availed themselves of the exhausted condition of Carthage to
demand from her the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, and the payment of
a farther sum of 1200 talents. The mercenary troops in Sardinia, who had
also revolted, had applied to Rome for assistance; and the Senate
menaced her rival with war unless she complied with these unjust
demands. Resistance was impossible, and Sardinia and Corsica were now
formed into a Roman province, governed, like Sicily, by a Prætor sent
annually from Rome (B.C. 238). This act of robbery added fresh fuel to
the implacable animosity of Hamilcar against the grasping Republic. He
now departed for Spain, where for many years he steadily worked to lay
the foundation of a new empire, which might not only compensate for the
loss of Sicily and Sardinia, but enable him at some time to renew
hostilities against Rome.
Rome was now at peace, and in B.C. 235 the Temple of Janus, which had
remained open since the days of Numa, was closed for a second time. Two
new tribes were added to the Roman territory, thus making their total
number thirty-five.
The Temple of Janus did not long remain closed. The Illyrians, who dwelt
near the head of the Adriatic upon its eastern side, were a nation of
pirates, who ravaged the coasts of this sea. The Senate having sent
embassadors to the Illyrian queen, Teuta, to complain of these outrages,
she not only refused to attend to their complaints, but caused one of
the embassadors to be murdered. War was straightway declared, and a
Roman army for the first time crossed the Adriatic (B.C. 229). Demetrius
of Pharos, an unprincipled Greek, who was the chief counselor of Teuta,
deserted his mistress, and surrendered to the Romans the important
island of Corcyra. Teuta was obliged to yield to the Romans every thing
they demanded, and promised that the Illyrians should not appear south
of Lissa with more than two vessels. The suppression of piracy in the
Adriatic was hailed with gratitude by the Grecian states, and deserves
notice as the first occasion upon which the Romans were brought into
immediate contact with Greece. The Consul Postumius, who had wintered in
Illyria, sent envoys to Athens, Corinth, and other Grecian cities, to
explain what had been done. The envoys were received with honor, and
thanks were returned to Rome (B.C. 228).
The Romans had scarcely brought this trifling war to an end when they
became involved in a formidable struggle with their old enemies the
Gauls. Since the conquest of the Senones in B.C. 289, and of the Boii in
B.C. 283, the Gauls had remained quiet. The Romans had founded the
colony of Sena after the subjugation of the Senones; and in B.C. 268
they had still farther strengthened their dominion in those parts by
founding the colony of Ariminum. But the greater part of the soil from
which the Senones were ejected became Public Land. In B.C. 232 the
Tribune C. Flaminius carried an Agrarian Law to the effect that this
portion of the public land, known by the name of the "Gallic Land,"[30]
should be distributed among the poorer citizens. This alarmed the Boii,
who dwelt upon the borders of this district. They invoked the
assistance of the powerful tribe of the Insubres, and being joined by
them, as well as by large bodies of Gauls from beyond the Alps, they set
out for Rome.
All Italy was in alarm. The Romans dreaded a repetition of the disaster
of the Allia. The Sibylline Books being consulted, declared that Rome
must be twice occupied by a foreign foe; whereupon the Senate ordered
that two Gauls and a Grecian woman should be buried alive in the forum.
The allies eagerly offered men and supplies to meet a danger which was
common to the whole peninsula. An army of 150,000 foot and 6000 horse
was speedily raised. A decisive battle was fought near Telamon in
Etruria. The Gauls were hemmed in between the armies of the two Consuls.
As many as 40,000 of their men were slain, and 10,000 taken prisoners
(B.C. 225). The Romans followed up their success by invading the country
of the Boii, who submitted in the following year (B.C. 224).
In B.C. 223 the Romans for the first time crossed the Po, and the Consul
C. Flaminius gained a brilliant victory over the Insubres. The Consuls
of the next year, Cn. Cornelius Scipio and M. Claudius Marcellus,
continued the war against the Insubres, who called in to their aid a
fresh body of Transalpine Gauls. Marcellus slew with his own hand
Viridomarus, the chief of the Insubrian Gauls, and thus gained the third
_Spolia Opima_. At the same time Scipio took Mediolanum (Milan), the
chief town of the Insubres. This people now submitted without
conditions, and the war was brought to an end. To secure their recent
conquests, the Romans determined to plant two powerful Latin colonies at
Placentia and Cremona, on opposite banks of the Po. These were founded
in B.C. 218, and consisted each of 6000 men. The Via Flaminia, a road
constructed by C. Flaminius during his consulship (B.C. 220), from Rome
to Ariminum, secured the communication with the north of Italy.
While the Romans were engaged in the Gallic wars, the traitor Demetrius
of Pharos had usurped the chief power in Illyria, and had ventured upon
many acts of piracy. In B.C. 219 the Consul L. Æmilius Paullus crossed
the Adriatic, and soon brought this second Illyrian war to an end.
Demetrius fled to Philip of Macedon, where we shall shortly afterward
see him prompting this king to make war against Rome. The greater part
of Illyria was restored to the native chiefs; but the Romans retained
possession of Corcyra, and of the important towns of Apollonia and
Oricum on the coast.
Meanwhile Hamilcar had been steadily pursuing his conquests in Spain.
The subjugation of this country was only a means to an end. His great
object, as already stated, was to obtain the means of attacking, and, if
possible, crushing that hated rival who had robbed his country of
Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. His implacable animosity against Rome is
shown by the well-known tale that, when he crossed over to Spain in B.C.
235, taking with him his son Hannibal, then only nine years old, he made
him swear at the altar eternal hostility to Rome. During the eight years
that Hamilcar continued in Spain he carried the Carthaginian arms into
the heart of the country. While he conquered several states in war, he
gained over others by negotiation, and availed himself of their services
as allies or mercenaries. He fell in battle in B.C. 229, and was
succeeded in the command by his son-in-law Hasdrubal. His plans were
ably carried out by his successor. The conciliatory manners of Hasdrubal
gained him the affections of the Spaniards; and he consolidated the
Carthaginian empire in Spain by the foundation of New Carthage, now
Cartagena, in a situation admirably chosen on account of its excellent
harbor and easy communication with Africa, as well as from its proximity
to the silver mines, which supplied him with the means of paying his
troops. The conduct of his warlike enterprises was intrusted to the
youthful Hannibal, who had been trained in arms under the eye of his
father, and who already displayed that ability for war which made him
one of the most celebrated generals in ancient or modern times. The
successes of Hamilcar and Hasdrubal could not fail to attract the notice
of the Romans, and in B.C. 227 they concluded a treaty with the latter,
by which the River Iberus (Ebro) was fixed as the northern boundary of
the Carthaginian empire in Spain.
Hasdrubal was assassinated in B.C. 221 by a slave whose master he had
put to death. Hannibal had now acquired such a remarkable ascendency
over the army that the soldiers unanimously proclaimed him
commander-in-chief, and the government at Carthage hastened to ratify an
appointment which they had not, in fact, the power to prevent. Hannibal
was at this time in the 26th year of his age. There can be no doubt that
he already looked forward to the invasion and conquest of Italy as the
goal of his ambition; but it was necessary for him first to complete the
work which had been so ably begun by his two predecessors, and to
establish the Carthaginian power as firmly as possible in Spain. This he
accomplished in two campaigns, in the course of which he brought all the
nations south of the Iberus into subjection to Carthage.
Early in the spring of B.C. 219 he proceeded to lay siege to Saguntum, a
city of Greek origin, founded by the Zacynthians. Though situated to the
south of the Iberus, and therefore not included under the protection of
the treaty between Hasdrubal and the Romans, Sagantum had concluded an
alliance with the latter people. There could be little doubt, therefore,
that an attack upon this city would inevitably bring on a war with Rome;
but for this Hannibal was prepared, or, rather, it was unquestionably
his real object. The immediate pretext of his invasion was the same of
which the Romans so often availed themselves--some injury inflicted by
the Saguntines upon one of the neighboring tribes, who invoked the
assistance of Hannibal. But the resistance of the city was long and
desperate, and it was not till after a siege of nearly eight months that
he made himself master of the place. During all this period the Romans
sent no assistance to their allies. They had, indeed, as soon as they
heard of the siege, dispatched embassadors to Hannibal, but he referred
them for an answer to the government at home, and they could obtain no
satisfaction from the Carthaginians, in whose councils the war-party had
now a decided predominance. A second embassy was sent, after the fall of
Saguntum, to demand the surrender of Hannibal, in atonement for the
breach of the treaty. After much discussion, Q. Fabius, one of the Roman
embassadors, holding up a fold of his toga, said, "I carry here peace
and war; choose ye which ye will." "Give us which you will," was the
reply. "Then take war," said Fabius, letting fall his toga. "We accept
the gift," cried the Senators of Carthage. Thus commenced the Second
Punic War.
[Illustration: Coin of Hiero.]
[Footnote 30: Gallicus ager.]
[Illustration: Lake Trasimenus.]